Design Team
Tay
Kheng Soon
Calvin Sim Chen-Min
Interiors by Bedmar and Shi Pte Ltd.
Landscape by Sim Kern Teck
Design Data
Site
Area: 4,994.3 sq m
Site Coverage: 17.76 %
Plot Ratio: 1 : 0.38
Gross Floor Area: 1,906.48 sq m
The Modern Tropical House is a poetic statement in the language of Line, Edge and Shade. It has all the attributes of a well-designed house in the tropics; it has major living spaces which are 'open-to-sky', it is orientated to catch the prevailing breezes, it has openness in the plan arrangement to encourage cross-ventilation, it has extensive use of water and planting, a structured hierarchy in its plan arrangement, wide overhanging eaves, the opportunity to adjust the penetration of sunlight by the use of manually- operated blinds, secondary shading devices, and the restriction of air-conditioning only to those rooms where it is strictly necessary. It is a brilliant exposition of the art of designing a modern house in the tropics.
The house is entered by a modest gateway which betrays little of the open
life-style that the owner enjoys. The gate opens to reveal a short drive
to the car porch and entrance vestibule. The rough stone which surrounds
the car porch gives a fortress- like quality which conceals the openness
of the house beyond. One enters through a relatively small opening in
this wall into a circular pavilion. The visitor then proceeds along a
causeway which crosses a carp pond to the living room whereas family members
and close friends turn sharply left and skirting the pond to make their
way directly to the more casual day-areas adjoining the kitchen.
This space is open on all sides, a void-deck if you like, that unique
Singaporean feature of sheltered open living space. It could also be read
as a derivation of the space beneath the Malay kampong house. The house
is a kaleidoscope of different moods.
The entrance court is formal, quiet, a place for contemplation, for formal
greetings, for walking with a measured tread. The pool court is different;
a place for laughter, for fun and games, the brilliant blue of the pool
conveying the ambience of a tropical resort. Penetrate further into the
house and the ambience changes. The two-storey high under-croft with its
tall circular columns and palm trees is the equivalent of the tropical
rain forest, shaded and cool.
The site drops away to the east and on a lower plateau is an eco-pond.
All these habitats are linked by a meandering pathway which follows the
natural contours and the house is experienced as a series of changing
vistas and patterns of light and shade. The architectural language employed
is uncompromisingly modern.
A language
of thin, projecting concrete slab edges, of secondary horizontal shading
elements, of louvres and light-diffusing screens; the modern equivalent
of the traditional chick blind, of raised undercrofts, green algae-tinted
ponds and a lifestyle that works with rather than against the natural
world.
The house was an oppor-tunity to explore 'modern tropicality'. It relies
on the juxtaposition of pure form against water and vegetation to create
an image and an experience of the tropics. Openness and transparency and
constantly changing vistas and light are calculated to engage the imagination.
A client who was sympathetic to the architectural intentions and a superb
site gave the practice the opportunity to define a tropical lifestyle.
